This week in the Teacher’s Edition (the U.S. Dept of Education weekly update), I saw a quote pertaining to the topic of PD. It said, “Just as teachers personalize learning for our students, principals and coaches need to identify what teachers need… [and where] they want to grow.” (Teacher, Ohio).

In addition, in a recent post on Connected Principals from jjohnson, this appeared:

“What I am learning about professional development is:1. It must include differentiation for staff2. It must include deep reflection”

When I was preparing to be a principal long ago, I remember talking about providing relevant PD, but I never expected what the term “relevant” would really mean. I’ve seen the following over the years that I would consider to be good practices in differentiating PD. Consider the list below as some ideas.

– time of day: At one of the schools where I was an administrator, we offered many faculty meetings and other PD session in the morning AND after school. Many of our dedicated staff had young children to drop off in the AM or older children participating in activities after school, and the flexibility was really appreciated by many.

– topic: many school leaders I know have created questionairres for staff around the PD they a) want, and b) need.

– intensity: there are many inservice teachers who would report having a “brush up” in classroom management techniques. However, there may be teachers on the staff who need a more intense and immediate PD session or two.

– encourage the development of PLNs on twitter and other social media.